


Just One of Those Days

by chuchoter



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Ice Skating, Character's Name Spelled as Viktor, Dog groomer AU, Eventual Fluff, Gen, M/M, Major Character Injury, Not Beta Read, Slow Burn, Why Did I Write This?
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-04
Updated: 2017-09-04
Packaged: 2018-12-23 21:18:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,162
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11998155
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chuchoter/pseuds/chuchoter
Summary: Yuuri wasn't expecting to have Makkachin Nikiforov, who is notoriously bad for his grooms, on his table. But, he assumed that it was going to just be one of those days and he had never been more right.||Dog groomer AU||





	Just One of Those Days

When Yuuri pulled up to the small grooming shop, he had a feeling that it was going to be one of  _ those _ days; the ones where all of the dogs are nightmares, he’s overbooked, and the customers want to pick a fight because one hair was shorter than the rest. He didn’t hate those days, but it made him really question if he wanted to be a groomer at all. It was early, but he could see the owner wrangling the early dogs into their kennels for the day with a look that screamed, “is it three o’clock yet?” Maybe he should consider being a medium, he thought as he walked through the employee entrance. 

“Ah, Yuuri, thank god! Can you help me put Randall in one of the big kennels?”

His boss, Lillian, was about as passionate as a groomer could get and she had trained him into the, rather mediocre, groomer that he was. Grooming hadn’t been his first choice in life, but when he saw the “help wanted” sign displayed on the shop three years ago, and applied as a bather, he realized that he kind of enjoyed it, and it helped him pay his way through school until graduation. It didn’t mesh well with his biology degree at all, but it paid a lot better than the entry-level jobs that he wouldn’t get anyway.

He chuckled and grabbed Randall, an Australian shepherd with an undercoat so think that it was dreadlocking, by his leash, “Is he one of mine?”

Lillian turned and looked at the board as she held the kennel open for the dog, “No, but it looks like you only have two dogs today. Strange…”

He closes the kennel, making sure that Randall is comfortable, and hangs the leash up, “Only two?”

The pair walked over to the dry erase board where the dogs are assigned, and Lillian sighs.  _ Makkachin Nikiforov _ was written in a stark red, a warning against the other names written in blue, underneath Yuuri’s name, and suddenly everything added up. Makkachin wasn’t a bad dog in Yuuri’s mind, but he just didn’t like to be groomed. At least, from what he could tell. Lillian was normally the dog’s groomer, and the many times that he watched her try to get his teddy bear cut  _ just right _ had usually ended in being bitten.

“Who in the hell…?! Yuuri, I’m going to trade you these three for Makka. You’re too inexperienced to groom him,” she said, pointing at three dogs that Yuuri had never even heard of.

He stared at the red name, and felt a bubble of determination in his gut, “No, let me at least try to groom him. I’ll never get better if I don’t start grooming more difficult dogs.”

Lillian looked at him, “Yuuri, today isn’t really the day to play that card. Makka is... he’s just really--”

“Excited to see you, Lillian!” Viktor, Makka’s owner, called behind them. 

Lillian turned on cue to check in the dog. Yuuri had never actually seen the dog’s owner (Viktor, according to the record), but from what he could tell, he’s a decent guy. His voice was warm and sweet, and Yuuri smiled at him from his post by the white board.

“Viktor, I’m actually not grooming Maaka today,” Lillian says, looking back at Yuuri, “My protege, Yuuri, is.”

The attention was unwanted, and Yuuri felt his face heat up and his breath caught in his throat. Viktor smiled warmly at him, and Yuuri waved awkwardly. He was thankful that his job didn’t really require him to interact socially with people too much, because he could tell that Viktor just  _ knew _ how socially awkward Yuuri was.

“Well Makka gets to make a new friend today,” he said handing the leash over to Lillian, “Now please be nice to Yuuri, Makka. He doesn’t deserve to be bitten.”

Yuuri walked up to Lillian and took the leash from her hands as she joked a little more with Viktor. He leads the brown poodle to his table, which was already low enough for the dog to just step up. He always started his dogs by doing their nails and plucking the ear hair, and Makka was no exception. He could feel the dog tense as he gently reached for a back leg, and was relieved to see that Makka relaxed as he began trimming. Each clack of the nail trimmer made Makka pull ever so slightly against his light grip, but never did the dog growl or attempt to bite him. 

Yuuri could feel Lillian looking at him with worry from her own table, but he wanted to reassure her that he could do this. So, with a warm smile, he looked up at her and her hyper pug, “He’s doing okay so far. I’ll let you know if I need your help, okay?”

With an agreeable grunt, she took the pug to the back to bathe him. Yuuri used the quiet time to pour some ear powder into Makka’s fluffy ears and gently pull out the small fragments of ear hair. Luckily, Makka came in every four weeks to get a bath and a groom, so he was in very manageable shape.

Still, with no complaints, Makka let Yuuri finish with his ears and together they walked to the shower for the bath. Lillian looked over, hair and smock soaked from the pug, “Still doing okay?”

Yuuri nodded as he situated Makka into the shower, “Yeah, so far so good. I’m taking it as cautiously as I can.”

He turned the nozzle on and allowed the water to warm up, feeling a slight push on his shin. He looked down at the dog, who was pushing his head against Yuuri’s lower leg, and smiled. Reaching down to pet him, the dog gave a tiny whine as if to say, “Please no bath.”

Yuuri chuckled, “Sorry, buddy. You have to get it done.”

The shower went by easily, Yuuri taking the time to scrub the shampoo through the dog’s thick coat with meticulous movements as to make sure the dog was nice and clean. After finally rinsing out all of the shampoo, Yuuri finally noticed the other two employees had shown up. They looked at him with as much caution as Lillian had earlier, and one (who had only started a few weeks ago) gave him a look of sheer guilt. He wasn’t mad at her, by any means, and he shot her a warm smile as he got Makka situated near the velocity dryers.

Drying Makka went as easy as the shower did, to Yuuri’s surprise. Usually, when Lillian got Makka to the dryer, he started to freak out (mostly due to the loud noises) but today he was calm and relaxed as Yuuri dried him. Yuuri was beginning to wonder if he had a calming effect on the dog, or if there was a full moon causing Makka’s strange behavior. Either way, the day was going okay for the both of them.

When he felt that Makka had had enough of the dryer, he put him in a large kennel and added two cage dryers to allow the dog to rest for a while. He used the time to start on his second dog of the day, a small Yorkshire terrier that was almost too small to be considered a dog. He worked the dog straight through, bath to groom in the matter of an hour, to his own surprise; he wasn’t used to finishing a dog so quickly!

“Hey, Lillian?” He called as he looked over the Yorkie.

“Yeah, what’s up,” Lillian asked, walking over to him, “Want me to look over Remi?”

Yuuri nodded as she began to look over the dog to make sure that he didn’t miss anything, or leave a hair out of place. Despite grooming for two years, he was still very self-conscious when it came to his grooms. He always felt that they could be better, despite Lillian’s constant reassurance that he was doing great.

After what seemed like hours, Lillian patted him on the back, “He looks great, Yuuri! Keep up the good work.”

He smiled and took the dog to his kennel, watching the small dog jump around in excitement when he closed the door. He took a small glance at the clock and decided to take a small break. He wasn’t used to having downtime as a groomer because there was always something that could be done; a dog to start, his area to sweep, owners to call...the list always went on. However, he sat in the break room with a content sigh and pulled out his phone.

Phichit had already sent him several messages, exclaiming how boring his classes were and begging Yuuri to send him memes. There was also a message from his mother, asking how his day was, and an email from his college’s alumni association asking for a donation. Yuuri replied to his mother first, knowing that she probably wouldn’t see the message for a while due to the time difference between America and Japan, but he always made a point to respond.

When his phone read 10:45, though, he left the break room to go finish Makkachin. He greeted the dog with a smile and got a lick and a tail wag in return. Lillian had always said that Makka was friendly towards her when he wasn’t on the table, but Yuuri felt his confidence rising as he began to brush the dog with no problem.

Makka, while a poodle, didn’t get a typical show dog cut. He had one length all over his body, no clean feet, and a slightly larger topknot that blended into his teddy bear face. Lillian had worked hard to get the dog to look the way he did, and it honestly fit him. Yuuri ran the clippers, with a ‘C’ comb, down his body to get the desired length and watched as the small amount of hair fall off of the dog and onto his table.

“Still doing okay for you,” Lillian asked tepidly, “He seems calm.”

Yuuri turned the clippers off, “Yeah, so far so good. Maybe there’s a full moon tonight?”

With an audible laugh, Lillian walked back to the tub to bathe another dog, leaving Yuuri and Makkachin alone in the front room. Yuuri used the silence to hum a song that he heard on the radio and continued to run the clippers through the fluffy brown hair. It was going so well, so he let his guard down a little, and scissored up the dog’s feet to a nice round shape. The topknot was trimmed down to perfection with no problem, and the same went for the mustache.

An hour and a half later, Yuuri sighed proudly and looked over the dog that was feared through the shop, the dog that was supposed to take up three slots due to how bad he was, the dog that only Lillian was able to groom, and declared him finished. Not a hair was out of place, and not a bite was given.

Lillian patted him on the back as he walked over to call Viktor to let him know his dog was finished.

“He’s done already? Wow! You must be a miracle worker,” Viktor said to Yuuri on the phone.

“I don’t know, but he was great. You can pick him up whenever you’re ready, okay?”

“I’ll be there in ten minutes. Thanks again, Yuuri!”

He didn’t want to admit it, but he blushed at the way Viktor said his name.

He walked back to Makkachin, who was sitting patiently on his table when he noticed it. Something about the dog changed ever so slightly, and Yuuri saw one small tuft of hair sticking out of his front left paw. If he wasn’t on a confidence high, he would have known better. But, he didn’t and he grabbed his curved shears anyway, and reached for Makka’s paw. He should have seen the dog’s eyes dart to his reaching hand, he should have heard the low growl, but he didn’t.

The only thing he could feel, though, was teeth sinking into his wrist and the white hot pain. He heard Lillian yell, his shears fall out of his grip and crash onto the floor, and then a constant ringing that wouldn’t stop. There were people around him saying his name, Lillian squeezing his wrist hard to stop the bleeding, and someone opening the front door.

Yuuri could hear Lillian’s muffled voice telling him to breathe, and that help was on the way. He thought that he saw a flash of silver somewhere in his line of sight, but he could still only focus on the pain. He wasn’t aware of the hands moving him onto a stretcher, or the loud sirens, or even his own voice asking if Makkachin was okay and soon he was greeted by calm and darkness.

**Author's Note:**

> I groom dogs, and this has been dancing in my head for such a long time. I've groomed dogs like how I've written Makka, and it is a thing that happens. Luckily, I haven't been bitten as bad as poor Yuuri, but I did know someone who got their nose bitten off...Anyway, I hope you enjoy. Updates will be random, as I have hardly any free time to write. Not beta read, but feel free to leave me some advice! Lord knows I need it!


End file.
